That means an unusually high number of children on the Canary Wharf estate.

But what to do with them?

Fortunately, just over the green bridge on West India Quay, the Musuem Of London Docklands has been working hard on ways to entertain them.

Spearheading that endeavour is family learning programme manager, Cassandra Tavares.

She’s keen to make the museum and its contents as accessible and engaging for families as possible, ensuring its galleries contain diversions for minds of all ages.

She said: “We have the Mudlarks Gallery for under eights, which includes a soft play area for those under a metre.

“It also has a water play zone and we’re sourcing some gravel so they’ll be able to dig in it and do some archaeology.

“There are boats in it and you can dam it up, that sort of thing.

“There’s area where you can load up a tea clipper and balance it with all the different goods coming into the Port Of London.

“And there’s a chance to play at being dockers, watch a video under the Thames in a diver’s helmet or to build skyscrapers in our construction area.

“It is an actual gallery as well – there are objects in the walls.”

Credit: Matt Grayson

All activities are free, although booking is advised for Mudlarks sessions (especially on rainy days) as the gallery has a limited capacity.

Beyond the specific kids area, Cassandra has worked hard to introduce elements throughout the museum to keep families engaged.

“We’ve been introducing play points – some are specifically early years,” she said.

“We hold the Sainsbury’s Study Archive here and we have a little role playing shop and a bakery, which get really busy.

“I started working on them in 2015 – there’s a lot of thought that goes into what we introduce and why.

“We have touch tables with real dockers tools you can touch and staff offering items to hold.

“It’s about tactile, multi-sensory displays.

“We want all the senses to be engaged, the kids to smell things, touch things and see things.”

The trained archaeologist, originally from Somerset Massachusetts, has been in London for 11 years.

She embarked on her present career having found she really enjoyed working with families.

“They are keen to learn things and working like this isn’t so prescriptive,” said Cassandra

“I wanted to make archaeology and museum studies much more accessible to families.

“That’s what made me want to become an archaeologist in the first place.”

Part of that has meant introducing around 25 captions for kids. Picked out in orange throughout the museum they’re designed to draw attention to items likely to appeal to families.

Beyond the text, there are also opportunities to get physical.

“We’ve just had one installed where visitors can build a bridge,” said Cassandra.

“It’s about physics and pressure and how to build a structure that can sustain itself.”

Right next to that, people can try bricking up a tunnel under the Thames or, elsewhere, raising a sack using a treadwheel (think plus-size hamster).

There are also opportunities to dress up, play at shipbuilding and smell spices.

In support of the museum’s Roman Dead exhibition Cassandra has also organised an accompanying interactive show for kids.

Styx, Stones And Roman Bones takes the audience on the journey of spirit Grata.

Credit: Matt Grayson

“It’s kind of an interesting topic,” said Cassandra.

“How do you make death approachable and interesting for children?

“We’ve worked with a company called Storyspinner and we’ve come up with a show that looks at Roman funeral rituals.

“We have Grata’s tombstone down in the exhibition.

“It’s very informal. The idea is her spirit has been stuck here and that now her tombstone is on display it’s given her the ability to talk to people about all the things she’s seen in London over the years.

“Now she’s ready to move on, cross the river Styx and go to the Elysian Fields.

“Her hypothesis is something went wrong with her funeral and so the audience needs to help her recreate it.

“Families go through different elements of the funeral, which aren’t all sad – there are bits like telling jokes to banish bad spirits.

“We’re looking at a specific type of ritual that did take place in the Roman Empire.”

The 45-minute shows run every Wednesday-to-Saturday in August at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3pm and are aimed at children age seven and up.